Black Decker

1910: Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker quit their jobs and form their own company with $1,200 in capital. They initially made a bottle-capping machine and a candy-dipping device. They soon begin work on a power drill from a plant on South Calvert Street in today's Inner Harbor. 1917: The firm patents a drill design, called the world's first portable power drill with a pistol grip. Also, Black & Decker's first plant opens in Towson. 1919: Sales at the young company surpass $1 million annually.

Consumers know Jos. A. Bank Clothiers for deals such as buy-one-get-two men's suits, but to residents of Hampstead, it's the good corporate citizen that spared the town as Black & Decker withered. Now the northern Carroll County town faces the prospect of potentially losing its largest employer again. Jos. A. Bank is locked in a heated battle for survival with Men's Wearhouse. This month, its larger rival launched a hostile $1.6 billion takeover bid that Bank's board is reviewing.

1910: Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker quit their jobs and form their own company with $1,200 in capital. They initially made a bottle-capping machine and a candy-dipping device. They soon begin work on a power drill from a plant on South Calvert Street in today's Inner Harbor. 1917: The firm patents a drill design, called the world's first portable power drill with a pistol grip. It is related to a portable air-compressor they had also patented. Also, Black & Decker's first plant opens in Towson.

Edward P. Bugnaski, a retired tool and die maker who was also a World War II veteran, died Oct. 28 of pneumonia at Menno Village, a Chambersburg, Pa., retirement community. He was 96. The son of Polish immigrants, Edward Paul Bugnaski was born in Baltimore and spent his early years in Fells Point, before moving with his family to Bradshaw in Baltimore County. He attended St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church and parochial school in Bradshaw, and in 1937, went to work as a machinist at Black & Decker in Towson.

Samuel H. Patterson, former director of recruitment and placement at Black & Decker Corp. who also enjoyed farming, died Nov. 7 of congestive heart failure at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. He was 93 and lived at Oak Crest Village in Parkville. The son of an educator and a former C&P Telephone Co. switchboard operator, Samuel Henson Patterson was born on the family farm in Gamber, Carroll County. After the family lost the farm during the Depression, they moved to a home near Clifton Park.

T aking a play from the Baltimore Colts, Black & Decker's headquarters is heading out of town on the sly. For years the toolmaker has held its annual shareholder meeting in or near its Towson headquarters. The company's stock is widely owned in metro Baltimore, its home for a century. But Friday's meeting, at which shareholders are expected to approve Black & Decker's sale to Stanley Works, isn't even happening in Maryland. If you want to vote in person or express an opinion, you'll have to make it by 9 a.m. to the Washington Dulles Airport Marriott in Virginia, 70 miles from Towson.

An article in yesterday's Business section incorrectly described the recent financial history of Towson-based Black & Decker Corp. While sales have been higher than those in comparable year-ago periods, profits have fallen and risen in the last four quarters.The continuing worldwide slump in spending and construction drove down quarterly revenues and earnings for the Towson-based tool and appliance maker.A company spokeswoman, Barbara Lucas, said that sales and profits have been declining for a year.

Power toolmaker Black & Decker Corp. is restoring pay cuts and the company match in its 401(k) retirement accounts as its financial outlook starts to improve, the company revealed in a regulatory filing Thursday. The Towson company made the salary reductions in April, one of several cost-cutting moves it has made throughout the year to help weather an economic downturn that has hurt sales of its tools. Base salaries of top executives were cut by 10 percent, salaried employees by 5 percent and salaried workers who qualify for overtime by 2.5 percent.

As it moves closer to wrapping up a three-part divestiture plan, Towson-based Black & Decker Corp. said yesterday that it has completed the sale of its glass-making machinery business, Emhart Glass.Bucher Holding AG of Switzerland purchased Emhart for $194 million, netting Black & Decker $158 million -- significantly more than analysts had predicted.Electing to concentrate on power tools and hardware, Black & Decker is also in the process of selling a controlling interest in its True Temper Sports golf club shaft business to Cornerstone Equity Investors LLC for about $200 million and $4 million in preferred and common stock.

If Nolan Archibald, CEO of Black & Decker, truly believes the merger with Stanley had "nothing to do with greed" ("Black & Decker merger approved," March 13), a nice gesture would be to give each of the 250 corporate workers in Towson who may be "let go" $100,000 of his own money. This would only cost him $25 million, or 28 percent of his estimated $89 million total compensation over the next three years. Scott White, Baltimore

Baltimore and its environs are home to plenty of animals that are at least as compelling as a months-old panda. Sure, there was plenty of wailing and gnashing of teeth when Washington's National Zoo, blaming the government shutdown, was forced to turn off the camera it has trained on its resident giant pandas, Mei Xiang and her 2-month-old cub. Thank goodness the Panda Cam is back on. But Baltimoreans, for one, should have been able to take...

Samuel H. Patterson, former director of recruitment and placement at Black & Decker Corp. who also enjoyed farming, died Nov. 7 of congestive heart failure at Gilchrist Hospice in Towson. He was 93 and lived at Oak Crest Village in Parkville. The son of an educator and a former C&P Telephone Co. switchboard operator, Samuel Henson Patterson was born on the family farm in Gamber, Carroll County. After the family lost the farm during the Depression, they moved to a home near Clifton Park.

George F. Parker, a retired mechanical engineer and world traveler, died Wednesday of cancer at his Severna Park home. He was 74. The son of an engineer and a homemaker, Mr. Parker was born in Wayne, Mich., and moved with his family in 1943 to Cleveland. He was a 1956 graduate of Gilmore Academy in Gates Mills, Ohio, and earned his bachelor's degree in 1960 from the University of Notre Dame. Mr. Parker worked for Lincoln Electric in Cleveland, and later for Moorfeed Co. in Indianapolis, before moving to Baltimore in 1982 when he took a position with now-closed Airco.

Even after Stanley Black & Decker shareholders rejected the tool and security company's executive pay plan last spring, the company paid Nolan D. Archibald, its executive chairman and the former CEO of Black & Decker, a total of $64.4 million in 2011. Archibald became chairman in March 2010 when the former Towson-based Black & Decker Corp. was bought by the Stanley Works in a $4.5 billion deal. At the time, Archibald's sale-related compensation, including bonuses tied to cost-cutting targets, drew criticism from corporate governance experts, who had estimated its worth at $89 million over three years.

That gas mower you have owned for years is spewing all kinds of pollutants into the air. If you're ready to trade it in for a more environmentally-friendly model, Black & Decker is giving some incentive this weekend to do so. The power tool company on Saturday is giving discounts to people who trade in their old gas mowers for rechargeable mowers. The models available include: CM1936 – 19 in. 36V Rechargeable Mulching Mower with Removable Battery CM1836 – 18 in. 36V Rechargeable Mulching Mower Check here for more about the event, which runs from 12.

Paul D. "Denny" Owings, a retired Black & Decker Corp. manager and volunteer firefighter, died May 14 of heart failure at his home in New Bern, N.C. The former Lutherville resident was 66. Mr. Owings was born in Baltimore and raised in Lutherville. He was a 1962 graduate of Towson Catholic High School and earned a degree in industrial management from the University of Baltimore in 1969. Mr. Owings, who retired from Black & Decker in 2005 as a manager of engineering projects, had worked for the toolmaker at plants in Fayetteville, N.C., and Towson during his 42-year career.

Hampstead Mayor Clint Becker has written to Gov. William Donald Schaefer to protest the state's decision to allow Black & Decker (U.S.) Inc. of Hampstead to use hundreds of thousands of gallons of ground water each day.In his Nov. 23 letter, Mayor Becker requested a meeting with the governor or his staff to discuss the Black & Decker water use permit."

T. Tracy Bilbrough, a career-long employee of Black & Decker Corp., has been promoted to president of the Eastern Hemisphere for the company's power tool group, overseeing sales and operations in Black & Decker's fast-growing market."

Stanley Black & Decker shareholders aren't happy about what the company is paying top executives. About 54 percent of shareholders voted against the executive compensation packages, 35 percent gave them a thumbs up and the rest abstained or were broker non-votes, the company said last week. The results are advisory only, which means the company isn't forced to change its pay practices. Nolan D. Archibald, executive chairman of the company and the former CEO of Towson-based Black & Decker, earned $28 million last year, the company reported earlier.